The subject matter of mental health is never one easy to handle and handle well. Director Kazuhiro Soda’s documentary Mental was not only engaging and insightful, it is also a personal film for Soda to make.
The following time codes and descriptions will give you a quick way to revisit a topic that you want to see again.
Time Codes for Part 1
0:00 Did Soda expect “Mental” to be an award-winning film and be so successful in Japan when he finished the film?
1:28 Why is the film a personal film for Soda and him sharing his personal experience with mental illness.
2:25 People suffering from mental illness in Japan and in the modern world.
4:05 The process of getting permission to shoot in the clinic. And the patients’ reactions.
5:14 Feeling very responsible for the people’s images and futures.
5:40 Talking about the sensitive story in the documentary about a lady and her baby. Soda’s thinking process and considerations.
Time Codes for Part 2
0:00 Depicting the whole story in its fuller complexity and not in an isolated manner.
1:26 An update of the patient.
1:35 Talking about how did Soda get the permission to make the film from the doctor and the clinic? And Soda’s style of making an observational documentary.
4:00 Talking about Dr. Yamamoto. Other psychiatrists’ comments after watching the film.
4:52 Is shooting a film like “Mental” possible in North America?
7:05 Soda’s experience in writing and publishing his book “Mental Illness and Mosaic” including in-depth interview with Dr. Yamamoto and panel discussions with patients appearing in the film and them watching it.
8:50 I really think Soda has done a great service to the mental health profession and patient communities in Japan and probably around the world where they have chance to watch the film.
What you may not have known is that I’ve also written a letter, including a copy of the movie, to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And today, a letter from Office of the Prime Minister arrived. I hope Prime Minister Harper will enjoy the film and be more active in trying to resolve the worldwide tragedy of child soldiers. (click here for a larger and readable version of the letter)
Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda’s observational documentary Campaignis a fascinating film about one candidate’s campaign in the strange world of Japanese election. In the following Skype video interview, Soda and I chatted about Campaign, the Peabody-award winning film I love, and his latest project temporary entitled Theatre.
The following time codes and descriptions will give you a quick way to revisit a topic that interests you the most.
Time Codes for Part 1:
0:00 Soda’s Peabody award experience and of being told on April 1st
0:53 How did Soda convince “Yama-san” and the LDP party to let him shoot the film?
2:05 Why Soda knows the film is going to be interesting before he shoots? The traditional political party of LDP vs the liberal and Bohemian “Yama-san” (this is a great story, you need to hear where Yama-san went to for honey-moon)
3:45 More about the conflicts b/n LDP and Yama-san
4:39 What makes this story interesting
5:05 Soda’s advice to new filmmaker to film an election?
6:13 Soda’s idea of an observational film and how to make an interesting documentary.
Time Codes for Part 2:
0:00 How many hours of footage did Soda shoot for his films (Campaign, Mental, and Theater)?
1:10 An update on “Yama-san”
2:38 Talking about Soda’s editing process.
3:55 Does Soda write a script when he is editing?
5:38 Soda’s process of creating/finding logic & POV.
7:10 What does Soda focus on when he shoot?
Time Codes for Part 3:
0:00 What happens in the editing room
0:37 When to start and stop recording/shooting? For example, when shooting Campaign, Mental, and Theater.
3:34 What kind of equipment Soda used to shoot? Shot three films with Sony HDV Z1.
5:15 What is Soda’s advices to people who want to make a documentary? (very insightful)
*******
Apr 29 update: Here is a photo of Soda when he first met Yama-san at Tokyo University. Soda was only 18 years old.
“It didn’t take long for Lang and Louie to fall in love.
They met in Calgary at a group dim sum gathering, knowing their mutual friend thought they should date.
They did a few weeks later, talking effortlessly for three hours at a cocktail bar, he recalled.
“The conversation never stopped and it was never awkward. It was at that moment I was like wow, she’s kind of amazing,” he said of their first date 18 months ago.
Lang was smitten by Louie, said her friend Robin Summerfield, the subject of Lang’s matchmaking.
After Lang and Louie were together for six weeks, Summerfield teased her friend about the new romance and asked whether she was in love.
“You know, I think I am,” she told Summerfield, a former Herald reporter.”
*******
Dear Michelle,
Like many others, I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you. And now I can only get to know you through the beautiful digital footprint you’ve left us. Your work ethics, deep dedication to journalism and high standard are what I will aspire to achieve when I do my own reporting.
Award-winning Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang was killed Wednesday in Afghanistan while reporting on the Canadian mission in the southern regions of the war-torn country.
Four Canadian soldiers also died in the blast, while a Canadian civilian was injured, the Department of National Defence said late Wednesday.
Lang, 34, was on patrol with a Canadian convoy of soldiers in the Kandahar area when the military vehicle they were travelling in struck a roadside bomb.
She is the first Canadian journalist to die in the Afghan war since Canada joined the international mission in 2002, and is believed to be the first Herald reporter ever killed on the job in the paper’s 126-year history.
As we got the horrible confirmation Wednesday from Lorne Motley, our editor-in-chief, stunned colleagues hugged and cried. We had heard the rumours earlier in the day, that Michelle had been killed by a roadside bomb en route to do a story on reconstruction efforts. She was outside the safe confines of Kandahar Airfield, and my first thought was that I wished it was me rather than her. All I ever wanted to be was a foreign correspondent. But Michelle was young, Afghanistan was a better “career move” for her, and off she went with commitment, although not without some trepidation.
We talked about it a bit, but not at length. Michelle told me that her mom was scared about her Afghanistan assignment. She also told me of the day not long ago when she filled out the Department of National Defence forms regarding next of kin, which made her feel nervous. I encouraged her, even envied her, but told her that if anything bad happened to her over there, I would be “very upset.”
Upset doesn’t begin to describe it. Like most everyone in our sad newsroom, I’m numb and haven’t stopped sobbing all day. I cannot grasp that Michelle, one of the nicest people I have ever known, is gone.
On May 22, Michelle won a National Newspaper Award, the equivalent of an Oscar in our business. She was deemed Canada’s best beat reporter, meaning she’s the cream of everyone who regularly covers anything, anywhere — from courts to crime, schools, city halls, legislatures, Parliament and much more.
Dec 31st, 2009 Update: The 4 soldiers have now been identified and they are,
Sgt. George Miok, 28, Cpl. Zachery McCormack, 21, both of Edmonton, Sgt. Kirk Taylor, 28, of Yarmouth, N.S., and Pte. Garrett Chidley, 21, of Cambridge, Ont.
My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of Michelle, George, Zachery, Kirk, and Garrett.
Today is another sad day in Canadian history and for Canadian democracy. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided it fits his political interests to shutdown the parliament and don’t reopen it until March 3rd (delay from the scheduled date of Jan 25th). The PM’s action is amount to holding in contempt the democratic process and tradition in Canada and turning prorogation into his favourite toy & tool to avoid being held accountable by parliamentarians elected by Canadians from sea to sea.
Mayer holds an average of 70 meetings a week and serves as the last stop before engineers and project managers get the opportunity to pitch their ideas to Google’s co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Eight teams consisting of directors, managers, and engineers—all at various stages of product development—answer to Mayer.
In a shop like Google (GOOG), much of the work takes place in meetings, and her goal is to make sure teams have a firm mandate, strategic direction, and actionable information, while making participants feel motivated and respected. Mayer’s six keys to running successful meetings follow:
1. Set a firm agenda. Mayer requests a meeting agenda ahead of time that outlines what the participants want to discuss and the best way of using the allotted time. Agendas need to have flexibility, of course, but Mayer finds that agendas act as tools that force individuals to think about what they want to accomplish in meetings. It helps all those involved to focus on what they are really trying to achieve and how best to reach that goal.
I’ve wanted to write an article after I heard the case of the Christmas Underwear Bomber and what the US and Canadian governments decided to do in the name of “enhancing our safety”. If I had written that article, it would have been a mostly emotionally one where I would have questioned how a “failed terror attempt” managed to successfully disrupt our lives. And why that kind of scenario where we, the public, always loose is just not acceptable.
Fortunately I waited patiently and saved myself some a few hours in writing time as security expert Bruce Schneier has finally spoken (was more insightfully and eloquently than I can) to shine some light and shared his insights. Remember, I don’t blindly trust anyone, including Bruce. But so far, he speaks with the most wisdom that government officials sadly lack.
“Microsoft Corp. has lost an appeal against a small Toronto company in a patent fight that cost the world’s biggest software maker $290 million (U.S.) and forced it to alter its ubiquitous MS Word program.”
Since 2003, versions of Microsoft Word, a word processing and editing software, have had XML editing capabilities. In 2007, i4i filed this action against Microsoft, the developer and seller of Word.
“Joaquin Baldwin is an Annie Award nominee director and animator from Paraguay. Living in Los Angeles, he is now finishing his MFA in animation at UCLA. He has received over 50 international awards for his animated films Sebastian’s Voodoo and Papiroflexia, and also several grants including the Jack Kent Cooke full Graduate Scholarship in 2006.”
And here is a bonus chat between Joaquin Baldwin, director of Sebastian’s Voodoo, and Lucas Martell, director of Pigeon: Impossible.
A German computer scientist has cracked the codes used to encrypt calls made from more than 80% of the world’s mobile phones.
Karsten Nohl [K: Nohl's U of Virginia page] and his team of 24 hackers began working on the security algorithm for GSM (Global System for Mobiles) in August.
[...] Nohl claims that armed with the code, which has been published online, and a laptop with two network cards, an eavesdropper could be recording phone calls within 15 minutes.
“This shows that existing GSM security is inadequate,” Nohl told the Chaos Communication Congress, an international annual meeting of hackers taking place in Berlin this week.
Nohl insisted that he had deciphered the code to force the global telecommunications industry to upgrade its security.
Nohl told the Guardian that important negotiations involving politicians or business leaders could easily be intercepted and they should invest in further encryption software to protect their privacy. “If there is anything secret going on using GSM, this should be of concern.”
Anyone who cares about our communication security based on Cryptography should know that the only way to keep our communication secure is to conduct open and active research in the field where weakness and problems are dealt with in a prompt and appropriate manner. Security through obscurity is NOT an option, and if I were less diplomatic, I would say it is plain stupid to rely our treasured security on obscurity.
Lucas Martell writer/director/producer/animator spent 5 years to create Pigeon Impossible, a wonderfully told and funny story. Over 2 million views since it was posted on Nov 8, 2009. Highly recommended.
Today (Dec 29th, 2009) is Prof. Ronald Coase‘s 99th birthday. I like to wish him a happy birthday and good health. I’ve added time codes and brief notes to his 2003 Coase Lecture (in 6 parts). Enjoy.
0:30 Coase Lecture,
1:21 Law and Economics,
1:40 Mr. Toad The Wind in the Willows,
2:14 First year students,
2:40 What Coase did as a young student,
3:14 The events that lead to the emergence of the subject known as Law and Economics,
3:36 Professor of Economics and not a Professor of Law and Economics,
3:47 knowledge of law as an undergraduate,
4:32 following the precedence,
4:44 The Law Courts,
5:03 American cases
Part 2
Time codes
0:00 Theory of international trade. (Never thought I would laugh so hard!)
1:24 More likely to become a lawyer than an economist in university. Study of industrial law.
2:25 Go to US to study why industries are organized in different ways.
3:28 Plant was opposed to government’s schemes of coordinating production. Read the rest of this entry »
Congrats Happiness Brussels for winning a Grand Prix in interactive for its really cool Toyota iQ Font campaign. And also receiving the title of Interactive Agency of the Year at Eurobest.
In the following YouTube video, you will see where and how they make the world smallest snowman at the NPL UK. They sure make science fun and turn it into entertainment.
Rights groups suspect the date of the verdict, Christmas day, was chosen to reduce international attention to the case.
Diplomats from the United States, Canada, Australia and several European countries were among those who stood outside during Liu’s trial Wednesday, after they were denied entry to the court house.
China has denounced the foreign diplomats for what it calls “meddling.” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters Thursday that Liu is a Chinese citizen and, as a result, his case is an “internal” affair.
Liu has been in detention for more than a year for his role in writing the pro-democracy manifesto called “Charter 08.”
The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that China’s prosecution of Liu is an action “uncharacteristic of a great country.” A State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said the U.S. will continue to have frank discussions with China about human rights and China’s future.
Prof. Liu Xiaobo YouTube video at PEN American Center,
Posted by kempton 
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